Epic P1.45-T heist
The perversion reached its apex in the corruption scandal, as the national budget, considered the government’s sacred contract with the people, was bastardized in a conspiracy involving the highest officials.
When President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. signed the 2025 General Appropriations Act (GAA) on 30 December 2024, P6.326 trillion worth of betrayal was ratified. This year’s allocation has the notoriety of being the most corrupt GAA of all time.
House Deputy Minority Leader Edgar Erice came out the other day to indict former House appropriations chairperson Zaldy Co and ex-Senate president Francis Escuder as the architects of the yearly heist that had been happening since Marcos stepped into power.
Between 2023, Marcos’ first full-budget year, and 2025, P1.45 trillion in congressional insertions, diversions, amendments, and outright fabrications were grafted onto three successive budgets.
According to Erice, the Metro Manila Subway lost P26 billion in programmed funds while the North-South Commuter Railway was stripped of P31 billion, causing their delay. Both were supposedly flagship projects of the administration.
The projects were moved to the unprogrammed appropriations (UA), which require allocations outside the budget, such as additional revenue collections, savings, or additional borrowing.
The freed funds were considered another discretionary fund for Marcos that swelled from P450 billion in 2022 to P1.94 trillion in 2025.
The bastardization of the budget process, spearheaded by the then speaker and Senate president, could not have happened without Marcos’ knowledge.
The trail did not end on the doorsteps of the two Congress leaders but continued all the way to Malacañang, since it was the President who signed the 2025 GAA, including all its insertions. His 2025 veto covered only P194 billion or 13 percent of the reallocations.
Erice didn’t mince words: “Senate President Chiz Escudero and the senators and congressmen could not possibly be unaware of this,” meaning you don’t misplace P1.45 trillion over the years by accident.
It was done through horse trading in the bicameral conference committee, which has the mandate to reconcile the conflicting provisions in the House and Senate versions of the budget, but it took on a life of its own, mutating into a conduit for pork barrel.
The pork-laden budget deal was then sealed in the small committee composed of Escudero and former Ako Bicol Representative Co.
The UA is composed of regular budget items that are reallocated to contingency funds to make space for the pork barrel. President Marcos tried a semblance of a reproach, vetoing P194 billion from the 2025 GAA, including P16.7 billion in dubious flood control projects.
Escudero has denied that the small committee existed, saying the allegations against him were part of a “demolition job” against the Senate as an institution.
The House passed the General Appropriations Bill with P243 billion still lurking in the UA.
The Independent Commission for Infrastructure (ICI) has not helped bust the mafia, as thus far, there have been no arrests yet.
Instead, the ICI issues glowing press releases about accountability while seeking the nation’s prayers.
Congress didn’t just steal P1.45 trillion over the past three years; the pilferage was facilitated by the approval of the annual budgets, which had only one final signatory: President Marcos.
